At the changing-of-the-guard ceremony for the head of the Central
Command in Jerusalem on Sunday, many of the Israel Defense Forces
officers in the audience could be seen keeping their eyes somewhat
nervously on their pagers. The frequent glances were not the result
of an abundance of operational messages, but the very opposite - the
pagers were uncustomarily quiet.

Sunday saw just a solitary shooting incident throughout the
territories, and those who had become accustomed to an incessant
stream of reports since the collapse of the first hudna (cease-fire)
in August 2003 are going to need some time to adjust to the fall-off
in the extent of the incidents.

The new arrangement in the territories is supposed to stabilize this
week: The Palestinian security forces have completed their deployment
in the Gaza Strip; Israel and the Palestinian Authority are
discussing handing over control of a number of West Bank cities to
the Palestinians; and the IDF is already conducting itself in keeping
with new game rules, as defined by Chief of Staff Moshe Ya´alon - a
halt to offensive operations in the Gaza Strip, and restricting such
operations in the West Bank to dealing with "ticking time bombs."

Nevertheless, the localized outburst of violence in the Strip
yesterday - the killing of a 10-year-old Palestinian girl, and
Hamas´s response of shelling Gush Katif settlements - testifies to
the fact that the process is still in its infancy.

A visit at the beginning of the week to two sectors in the
territories - Hebron and the northern Gaza Strip - gave a clear
picture of the caution with which the IDF is approaching the new
situation, and the limited trust it places in the new-old Palestinian
partner.

To the letter

Ya´alon´s directives, as far as can be discerned, are being
implemented to the letter. Since Saturday security forces have made
just one arrest in the territories. Nevertheless, security
cooperation between the sides is just kicking off. There has yet to
be a return to the pre-conflict days when Israel would pass on names
of suspected terror attack planners to the PA, which would then rush
to apprehend them.

In the West Bank, at least, the IDF will be the one that deals, when
necessary, with the ticking time bombs. And when it comes to Gaza,
only specific moves are being coordinated.

A few days ago, the IDF located a Qassam rocket ready for launching
in Beit Hanun; the PA picked it up too, and a Palestinian policeman
dismantled the launcher. The impression is that the IDF has a
counterpart to work with in Gaza: Musa Arafat. In the West Bank,
however, it doesn´t - and in both areas, neither the IDF nor the Shin
Bet security service has enough trust in the Palestinian partner to
provide it with substantial intelligence.

The IDF continues to man positions in the broad corridors its
established around the access roads to the Gaza settlements, and
soldiers in Hebron are still at posts set up in PA neighborhoods and
on hills overlooking settler homes in the city.

On the other hand, the IDF is no longer sending patrols deep into PA
territory in Hebron, and there is a definite increase in the presence
of Palestinian security forces, albeit unarmed, in the city. The
relative quiet of late can be seen as proof that only the
Palestinians can do it: The force applied by the IDF during the
course of the conflict wasn´t what reined in the terror; it took an
internal Palestinian decision.